Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Iowa by 2 percentage points in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination less than a month before the Iowa caucuses, a new poll shows.
The poll, conducted by Emerson College, found Ms. Haley has support from 17% of Republican caucus voters and Mr. DeSantis has 15%. This is a 10-point jump for the former U.N. ambassador, who registered 7% in a poll in September, and a 1-point drop for Mr. DeSantis.
Former President Donald Trump still leads in first with 50% of the support, which is a 1-point increase over September but a 12-point drop from May.
“Haley has carved out a base of support among post-graduate GOP voters where her support has increased by 27 points since September, from 20% to 47%, and she leads Trump among this group by 20 points,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. “Haley has made inroads with female voters where she trails Trump 47% to 20% (27 point difference) as compared with males who break for Trump 53% to 15% (38 point difference) for Haley.”
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy sees support from 8% of voters, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sees 4%.
When asked who their second-choice candidate would be, 32% of Trump supporters said Mr. Ramaswamy is their second pick. For DeSantis supporters, 44% said Ms. Haley is their second choice, and among Haley backers, 46% said Mr. DeSantis is their second choice.
The majority of Republican voters, 54%, said it makes no difference to them that Mr. Trump didn’t participate in the GOP debates, while 24% said it makes them more likely to support him and 23% said it made them less likely to support him.
“In contrast to 2016, where Trump’s decision to skip the final Iowa debate led to a 10-point drop in poll numbers within a week, skipping debates in 2024 seems to have no negative impact on Trump, who maintains a stronger lead this time,” Mr. Kimball said.
In a hypothetical matchup between President Biden and Mr Trump, the former president leads by 8 points among Iowa voters, 48% to 40%, while 12% are undecided.
The poll was conducted from Dec. 15-17. The sample of Iowa voters was 1,094, and the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The Republican caucus sample was 420, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 points.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.